Rebirth: I am in Jin-Cha-Ji

"Yigong, the Eighth Route Army has been gathering. If we fight like this now, will there be any problems?

Dong Qiwu was a little worried.

Although they didn't know exactly how many troops the Eighth Route Army had concentrated, they knew that the Eighth Route Army had been gathering troops. Although Fu Zuoyi's troops had not had much contact with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army, they had only fought one battle some time ago.

But they had heard of the reputation of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army.

Fu Zuoyi looked at the map and said very easily: "If it was the previous Jin-Cha-Ji, I would certainly pay attention. But the current Jin-Cha-Ji is no longer the previous Jin-Cha-Ji. The intelligence from Chongqing reported that the Eighth Route Army already had more than 9 troops in the Northeast, and the main troops were the troops sent by Jin-Cha-Ji. Jin-Cha-Ji has developed very well, but their territory is also large. Hebei, Rehe, Chahar, and Shanxi are all their territories. So Jin-Cha-Ji is strong, but there are also many opponents around it. Recently, Pang Bingxun rebelled in Hebei, causing those puppet troops in Hebei to change their flags, and Sun Lianzhong led his troops into Hebei. In addition, Hu Zongnan sent armies into western Henan, southern Hebei, and southern Shanxi, and Commander Yan's troops also entered the Yanbei area. Jin-Cha-Ji has to guard against so many people, and has withdrawn more than troops to enter the Northeast. How much strength can they still have?

Fu Zuoyi is really full of vigor and ambition now.

The Eighth Route Army developed too quickly.

So Chiang Kai-shek, who had been pressuring Fu Zuoyi, finally chose to compromise.

In 1945, Chiang Kai-shek decided to establish the 12th War Zone, separating Fu Zuoyi from the 12th War Zone. In July, Chiang Kai-shek decided to expand the 12th War Zone to include northern Shaanxi, northwestern Shanxi, Suiyuan, Chahar, northern Shanxi, and Rehe.

Then all the Kuomintang troops in this area were incorporated into Fu Zuoyi's command.

Originally, Fu Zuoyi's direct troops in this area were small in number. However, Fu Zuoyi's command was the strongest, and his direct troops were also the most combat-effective. So, although Chiang Kai-shek was concerned about Fu Zuoyi, he decided to compromise and strengthen his power.

Chiang Kai-shek gave Fu Zuoyi so many benefits in order to get him to do things.

Fu Zuoyi gained so many benefits and did not disappoint Chang Kaidian. Starting from Wuyuan, he conquered Baotou and Guisui along the way, inflicting heavy losses on the troops of the Jinsui Military Region. In order to stop Fu Zuoyi, the Jinsui Military Region dispatched more than 20 regiments.

The results of it?

Defeat after defeat.

So now Fu Zuoyi is very proud, even a little arrogant.

Including fighting with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei troops, in Fu Zuoyi's view, it was nothing special.

"The Eighth Route Army has always been engaged in guerrilla warfare. Even during the Jin-Cha-Ji period, they fought some major battles. However, they were mostly mobile warfare and ambushes, rather than regular, face-to-face offensives. Including their capture of Zhangjiakou and Baoding, there were various reasons.

The Eighth Route Army of the Jinsui Military Region fought well during the War of Resistance, but they were unable to concentrate their forces for large-scale battles. The Eighth Route Army is now transitioning from guerrilla warfare to regular offensive operations, which presents our best opportunity. We must not let this opportunity slip away. We must seize the Eighth Route Army's weaknesses and hold on to them.

Fu Zuoyi still admires the generals of the Eighth Route Army.

Whether it is Zhang Zhongxun or Yao Zhe and others.

But the way battlefields are fought has changed. Those generals who performed well during the War of Resistance are no longer able to adapt to the new situation and will be eliminated.

"I am now concentrating heavy troops to attack Zhuozi. In order to protect Zhuozi and Jining, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army will inevitably concentrate heavy troops to defend this side. This will make the other routes much easier. Especially the Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army on Zhang Zhongxun's side, they must be completely wiped out and not allowed to escape. As long as the Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army on this route is annihilated, the overall strength of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army will be reduced by half. At that time, we will control Jining and separate the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army. I will lead the troops back and join forces with Chen Changjie and Deng Baoshan to annihilate the remaining Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army. In this way, we will not only control Suiyuan, but also control northwest and southwest Shanxi, and directly threaten Yan'an.

Of course, we can also start from Jining and directly capture Zhangjiakou. Without the threat of the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi and Suiyuan, I can mobilize all our troops in Wuyuan and Baotou. In any case, it will benefit us all."

Fu Zuoyi started fighting against the Eighth Route Army of Shanxi and Suiyuan in Baotou, and he never thought of letting go of this Eighth Route Army unit.

We must annihilate them all.

Throwing down the pen in his hand, Fu Zuoyi said: "And I also want to see the value of the Jin-Cha-Ji Eighth Route Army.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army was very famous.

Fu Zuoyi was somewhat dissatisfied.

He wanted to compete with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army in Zhuozi to see whether the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army was really that powerful.

"Boss, the Eighth Route Army is just a lie. In this battle, we must break through the positions of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army and capture Zhuozi and Jining."

Guo Jingyun, commander of the 35st Division of the 101th Army, was full of heroic spirit.

The recent series of victories made Guo Jingyun very arrogant and he increasingly looked down on the Eighth Route Army.

"Xiushan is heroic."

Fu Zuoyi liked Guo Jingyun very much.

Fu Zuoyi's core generals were basically all from Shanxi. Guo Jingyun, a native of Shaanxi, was able to rise to prominence under Fu Zuoyi and was highly regarded by Fu Zuoyi, mainly because of his military prowess.

Guo Jingyun was very proud to hear Fu Zuoyi's praise.

But he quickly said, "Boss, it was our 35th Army that defeated the Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army led by Zhang Zhongxun. We were the ones who pursued and attacked them all along. Now that the Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army has been beaten to a pulp, why did the 67th Army have to take the final spoils? The 67th Army didn't really listen to the boss's orders before, but instead listened to Hu Zongnan's orders. Many of us brothers can't understand this."

Fu Zuoyi smiled when he saw Guo Jingyun's complaint.

Fu Zuoyi had previously served as deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth War Zone, and the troops in Suiyuan were supposed to obey his orders. However, as a unit of the Central Army, the 67th Army usually obeyed the orders of Hu Zongnan, another deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth War Zone, rather than Fu Zuoyi.

This made Fu Zuoyi and other direct generals very dissatisfied.

Facing his beloved general, Fu Zuoyi explained: "You guys.

Previously, I was only deputy commander-in-chief of the Eighth War Zone. Although the 67th Army was under my command, I was only deputy commander. The Eighth War Zone alone had four or five deputy commanders, so why would they listen to you? But now we are the 12th War Zone, and the 67th Army has been explicitly incorporated into it. From now on, the 12th Army will be our own unit.

Fu Zuoyi had too few direct troops.

Suddenly he became the commander-in-chief of the 12th War Zone, and the troops under his command expanded to more than 12. Therefore, Fu Zuoyi had to win over these troops, otherwise he would not be able to hold the position of commander-in-chief of the th War Zone by relying solely on his own troops.

Of course, Fu Zuoyi already had a complete plan in mind.

After the victory of this battle, Fu Zuoyi's prestige in Suiyuan, northern Shanxi, and Chahar will be at its peak. At that time, Fu Zuoyi will reorganize these non-direct troops.

Mix in his own troops and slowly transform them.

But it’s not easy to tell this to Guo Jingyun and others.

Dong Qiwu was still worried and said, "But Jin-Cha-Ji will definitely deploy a large number of troops in Zhuozi, and it will not be easy to break through their defenses.

"They will retreat. As long as the 67th Army annihilates the Shanxi-Suiyuan Eighth Route Army, the southern gate of Jining will be wide open, and they will have no choice but to retreat. And you forgot the Security Division and the th Infantry Brigade. As long as the Security Division and the th Infantry Brigade directly attack Zhangjiakou, the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Eighth Route Army will definitely retreat.

Fu Zuoyi was very confident.

Dong Qiwu hesitated for a moment and said, "Yi Gong, although we have fallen out with the Eighth Route Army and are fighting, there are still some aspects we should pay attention to. The Security Division is a group of bandits, causing trouble wherever they go. We may fight the Eighth Route Army, but our troops have never done anything to harm the local people. Now sending the Security Division into the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei base area, what kind of Security Division is this?"

Although they also fought against the Japanese during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there were a large number of habitual bandits among their troops.

For example, the commander of the Baoan Division, E Yousan, was notorious during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

They are good at fighting, but they also cause great harm to the local area. If such a force were to be deployed to the Jin-Cha-Yi base area, who knows how many people would be harmed.

In this way, the relationship between the two parties will be completely broken.

Fu Zuoyi shook his head and said, "In war, there is no room for mercy."

Pointing at the map, he said, "Our people are suited to methodical combat. A thousand-mile raid, without a rear base, is more suitable for troops like the Security Division, or rather, for bandit-like troops like the Security Division. The Security Division must enter the Jin-Cha-Ji base area and cause some disturbance, directly threatening Zhangjiakou, before the Jin-Cha-Ji troops in Jining can withdraw. As long as the Eighth Route Army dares to withdraw, I will pursue and attack them relentlessly."

Chapter 626 Zhang Zhongxun's Cooperation

Liangcheng.

It was previously the base of the Chaxi Detachment of the Eighth Column, and later became the base of the Chahar-Suiyuan Military Region. However, now it is the troops of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Military Region stationed here.

The Eighth Route Army troops in Shanxi and Suiyuan were exhausted and their morale was low.

The Eighth Route Army of Shanxi-Suiyuan was not new to fighting. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, they had fought many tough and brutal battles against the Japanese and puppet forces. However, they had never fought against such a cowardly Zhang, nor had they ever fought such a fierce battle. The troops' previous battles against the Japanese and puppet forces were completely different from the battle they faced this time against Fu Zuoyi.

Fu Zuoyi was right when he said that the Jinsui Military Region was organizing so many troops for combat for the first time, and most of the generals were inexperienced. In fact, among the Eighth Route Army generals, very few had actually commanded tens of thousands of troops in battle.

Let’s talk about the Red Army period.

How many troops did the Red Army have in total? At its peak, the Fourth Front Army had only about 80,000 men, while the Central Red Army had 100,000 men. However, more than a third of these troops were non-combatants.

The main corps of the Central Red Army, led by General Peng Dehuai and General Lin Biao, had only about 20,000 troops. It can be said that the commander of the largest number of troops during the Red Army period was General Xu of the Fourth Front Army.

Apart from them, those who were able to command four or five thousand people during the Red Army period were all senior generals of the Red Army.

The same was true during the Anti-Japanese War.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Eighth Route Army's strategy was guerrilla warfare in the mountains, with each unit primarily developing independently. For example, during the Hundred Regiments Campaign, although Peng Dehuai was the overall commander, each unit fought independently. At the outset, Peng Dehuai himself didn't know exactly how many units were involved.

So it doesn’t mean that just because General Peng commanded the Hundred Regiments Campaign, he had the experience of commanding 200,000 or 300,000 troops.

However, after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the Eighth Route Army began to gather these scattered and independently developed troops to form field corps.

As a result, the Eighth Route Army generals suddenly had more troops at their disposal.

Many generals were unaccustomed to commanding so many troops. Zhang Zhongxun was no exception. This was his first time directly commanding over 30,000 men in battle, and he was unprepared for many things. As a result, he suffered heavy losses at the hands of Fu Zuoyi.

When fighting with a large force, having more troops doesn't necessarily mean better. With more troops, even marching and camping become complex tasks. When Zhang Zhongxun fought Fu Zuoyi, he clearly had a well-prepared defense, but Fu Zuoyi always found loopholes.

It wasn't that the Jinsui troops weren't brave, nor was their combat effectiveness truly that poor. It was mainly because Zhang Zhongxun and his men were unfamiliar with large-scale troop command, and therefore, they had too many loopholes in the battle, which were exploited by Fu Zuoyi.

As a result, we suffered defeat after defeat and were routed all the way to this point.

What was even more unexpected was that Fu Zuoyi's troops were in hot pursuit.

If you want to rest for a while, his troops will come to attack you. They don't give you any time to rest at all.

Even so, the troops had retreated to Liangcheng, but Fu Zuoyi still did not let it go.

"Commander, what does this mean? Are you asking us to lure the enemy?"

Huang Xinting, commander of the 358th Brigade, was somewhat dissatisfied.

Wei Hongjun wrote to Zhang Zhongxun, hoping that Zhang Zhongxun would lead the Eighth Route Army troops of Shanxi-Suiyuan to evacuate Liangcheng and attract the 67th Army and the Suiyuan Security Brigade to create an opportunity for the Southern Route Column of the Third Field Army of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei to annihilate the enemy.

This made some generals of the Jinsui Eighth Route Army dissatisfied.

They had been chased and defeated by Fu Zuoyi in previous battles, and they were already full of anger. Now they were all ready to explode at the slightest touch.

Yu Qiuli, the political commissar of the 358th Brigade, pulled Huang Xinting.

"Why are you pulling me?"

Yu Qiuli turned helplessly to Zhang Zhongxun and said, "Commander, I think Comrade Wei Hongjun's suggestion is excellent. We've been marching from northwestern Shanxi and have fought Fu Zuoyi's troops many times along the way, suffering repeated defeats and retreating all the way here. The troops haven't rested at all along the way, and even after finally reaching Guisui, we haven't been able to rest and recuperate there. Our officers and soldiers are extremely tired. Many have even fallen asleep on the road and haven't been able to get up since. We've suffered heavy casualties, most not on the battlefield, but from those who fell behind due to exhaustion. Morale is low, and we're exhausted both physically and mentally. In this state, we can't withstand a major defeat. A major defeat would very likely lead to disintegration. The 67th Army is hot on our heels, and given our current situation, we simply can't fight anytime soon. If we follow Comrade Wei Hongjun's idea, we can easily annihilate the 67th Army in a single battle. The troops urgently need a victory to restore their low morale, and time to recuperate."

Yu Qiuli expressed his support for Wei Hongjun.

Huang Xinting muttered, "Everyone knows that you have a good relationship with Wei Hongjun."

In fact, the cadres of the 358th Brigade were very familiar with Wei Hongjun.

When Wei Hongjun was in Yan'an, Yu Qiuli was promoting the "mass training" campaign in the 358th Brigade. Wei Hongjun also went there and worked with Yu Qiuli to promote this training campaign. It was piloted not only in the 358th Brigade but also in the Second Training Brigade.

Therefore, during that period, Wei Hongjun frequently went to the 358th Brigade.

So I know all the cadres of the 358th Brigade.

"What are you talking about?"

Zhang Zhongxun glanced at Huang Xinting.

What does it mean to have a good relationship with Wei Hongjun? If you really want to talk about a good relationship, or a deep relationship, then it's still me. Wang Qiuyun and Wei Hongjun were both soldiers under his command. After arriving in Yan'an, Wang Qiuyun and Wei Hongjun both made a special visit to their old leader.

Zhang Zhongxun is one of them.

Later, Wei Hongjun and Yu Qiuli implemented new training methods in the 358th Brigade, leading to more frequent encounters. Zhang Zhongxun now felt deeply distressed. The -strong force consisted of veterans who had fought against the Japanese and puppet forces. The Jinsui Army, in particular, had the most difficulty developing due to its poor conditions. He had worked so hard to build up such a strong foundation, only to lose so much. Many of them were veterans who had fought with him for years.